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A Bookaholic, Pro-life, Pro-Family, Pro-Oxford Comma, Catholic (with Asperger's) who reads and writes as her obsession. I've been reading over 400 books a year lately. These are my ramblings on some of the books I read. To read about all the books I read and comment on, visit me at LibraryThing or Goodreads.

I've been blogging since 2007 and at this point (July 2015) am trying my hand at turning the theme of this blog towards mystery, thriller and crime, fiction and non-fiction. I have some special interest topics and categories within this broad genre which include (but are not limited to) serial killers, scandi-crime, Victorian history and historicals, history of the criminally insane and asylums, psychopathology, death, funerary practices and burial, corpses, true crime and anything dealing with the real life macabre, or that portrayed in fiction.

I also read a short story a day from various collections, sometimes anthologies othertimes collections of a single author's work. These reviews are also posted here and while they are of mixed genre the mystery, thriller, horror, gothic and macabre often appear within their pages as well.

Reason for Reading: I read one book previously by the author, Fever Crumb, and enjoyed it. This one looked like it would make a good read aloud to ds.

Publisher's Summary: " Dragons don't exist...or do they? Ansel is a mute boy whose master, Brock, is a dragon slayer. Brock wears shining armor and has the scars to prove his heroic stories, but Ansel still suspects that there is no such thing as dragons. So what is the man-eating monster that haunts the crags of Dragon Mountain? Ansel and Brock must make a terrifying journey to the top of the mountain to find out!"

Set in the middle ages of presumably our world, the book is immersed in a religious Catholic society, with both bad and good people, but a society who presumes there is a God. He can be found on all pages and while some characters use His name as a curse others use it as a cry for help. I really enjoyed being sat down in this society. We explore a real life event similar to St. George's infamous incident with the dragon, only when it comes down to just a handful of regular people, dragon fighting and maiden saving is not quite so heroic a deed as legend leads us to believe. Ansel, the mute, and Else, the offered maiden, are wonderful main characters who grow in character both in maturity and spiritually as does the at first, somewhat villainous Brock. Unfortunately, the antagonist is played by a Friar who is greedy, selfish and used his position and religion when it suits him best for his own purposes. The dragon is the foe and always is but he is not the protagonist anymore than a bear in the woods would have been.

The book starts off slowly and does take time for the story to settle in and the action to take grip, but once all the characters are on the mountain we were hooked and ready by the time the dragon made his first appearance. A few bits of gory scenes as a horse and man are eaten but nothing overdone. DS wants a sequel but I've told him we have to enjoy books that are just a story all by themselves sometimes. I'm glad it is a standalone and enjoyed it as a readaloud as well.

Cybils

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